Waking up in a new country, we were up reasonably early today because we were heading off on an early excursion. We could not believe the size of the city and port. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and has one of the biggest container ports in the world. Our guide told us that the area of Busan is 772 sq. Kms and 3.3million people live in there. Rob looked up the details for Adelaide, which showed Adelaide is 2,260 sq kms. and has 1.45million people living there. Many high-rise buildings fill the sky, and the area is very hilly so many are built on hills. In fact, in Korean, “san” means mountains. Our first stop on the excursion was a lovely skywalk over parts of the harbour and the first man-made public beach in Korea, constructed in 1917. We had great views of the harbour and surrounding area from this spot. Our guide was very keen for us to then hop on the bus to go the Gamcheon Cultural Village before the area became too busy. This fascinating village in set on the hillsides close to the centre of Busan has become famous for the artistic works that decorate the lanes and alleys. It is full of small shops, some offering food and drinks, others souvenirs and some with high-end pieces of artworks produced in the village. Originally in the 1920’s the village was a poor-working class area with people living in small wooden homes with community washing, bathing and bathroom facilities. In the 1970’s, the government attempted to improve things by building bigger 2 level cement houses, but poverty persisted. The houses were painted with whatever leftover paints could be found and so form a very colourful conglomeration. In 2009 the government sponsored an art themed renovation which seemed to have the desired effect, and it has now become a huge attraction. We enjoyed walking the busy streets and alleys and as we were leaving, noted the large crowds and traffic jams as vehicles tried to find places to stop and park. From this spot we were then taken to a huge fish market. Busan’s fish market is the 6th largest one in the world and it was fascinating. First, we walked down long street lined with fish sellers, before entering a building which had aisles and aisles of the same. Everywhere you looked you saw tanks with a huge array of live fish, shellfish, crabs, prawns, eels, sea cucumbers, sea worms, sea urchins etc. All of these creatures were being kept alive. You could go and pick your food out live from the tank. Above this area, on the second level was the seafood restaurant where your food would be cooked for you if you desired. We finished this excursion with a visit to a nearby “International Market” where you could buy almost anything. Many people were busy buying gifts and souvenirs. We arrived back and after clearing immigration, visited the bistro on the 14th level for lunch. Following this, Rob and I went for a walk around the ship on a higher level to get good views of both the harbour and the city. Very close to the main shipping wharf is a camping/caravan park. We found this very curious, but we could see people erecting their tents etc. One of our passengers asked our guide about this and she just said it was just a caravan park on the wharf as though it was nothing out of the ordinary.
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